Test Cricket gaining ground in the Middle East
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has now become the adopted home for Pakistan’s international cricketers.
The sport’s governing body, International Cricket Council (ICC), has encouraged the Pakistani Test Team to up sticks and play their cricket in Dubai on a regular basis.
This is not such a daft idea, with a huge proportion of UAE’s population made up of almost 1.8 million cricket mad Indians, 1.3 million equally sport fevered Pakistani’s and 240,000 cricket mad Britons it seems like the perfect move.
Admittedly, test cricket as an international sporting event is taking its time to settle into the UAE’s public conscious. But with the sheer number of active amateur clubs and ad hoc Friday games that exist, it is rapidly growing in popularity. The impressive purpose built 25,000-seater stadium at Dubai Sports City will help matters too.
During the recent Pakistan v England test series, Dubai did what it does best, entertained. In fact, the hospitality area of the new City stadium experienced its biggest ever demand.
Although the game itself wasn’t the most enthralling, and with England’s less than impressive batting skills which led to a whitewash by a buoyant Pakistan, the atmosphere around the stadium was electric. With corporate hospitality areas and VIP boxes almost full when England’s Test team visited the stadium, Alan Holt, managing director of Expat Sport, commented, “I wish there were more suites available as we have had a huge demand for corporate hospitality.
It’s been a huge success for our corporate clients because not only does it represent great value – especially compared with other sporting events in the region – it was also a hugely impressive and entertaining event. We are now receiving enquires for cricket matches further afield, such as the IPL in India and the Ashes, both in the UK and Australia in 2013/14.”
The fifty and twenty over editions of cricket, also presented at Dubai Sports City perhaps, offer a quicker fix to those generally hard at work in any one 5 day period. Yet for those of us prepared to travel with ears glued to Test Match Special on the BBC World Service, the UAE offers a unique opportunity to watch all forms of the game. Ground tickets are excellent value by international standards, most range between 80 and 100 Dirhams (£14/US$22 and £17/US$27) with some as low as 20 Dirhams (£3.50/US$ 4.45) for seats in the international zone intended for lower-paid workers. My nearest test venue, Headingley in the UK, charges a minimum of £40/US$63 for its West Stand and £7/US$11 for the equivalent of a chicken pot noodle!
While adding Test cricket to the UAE’s brimming roster of international sporting events may have been considered a risky endeavour, the Gulf state already offers a plethora of international sport. The vast amount of sport extends from the Abu Dhabi F1 Grand Prix and the closing tournament of the European PGA Golf Tour to international sevens rugby and tennis. Let’s not forget the Dubai World Cup and the richest horse race on the planet. I think the point has been modestly proven and if this event was anything to go on, the best is yet to come.
